Jason Ward Reviews Star Wars Rebels: Chopper Saves the Day

Star Wars Rebels: Chopper Saves the Daysort of hits a nostalgic note for me. As a young kid, before my family had a VHS player with Star Wars, we had books with tapes or records. Usually the record or tape was listened to a few times, but more than not, just the book was read over and over. Star Wars Rebels: Chopper Saves the Day is the same exact size as those old books. I can’t explain why, but it makes me happier than it should. While the book doesn’t contain a tape or record with it (sorry old timers) it does have two sheets of Star Wars Rebels stickers included with it. Everything from the rebel’s starbird to TIE-fighters and Chopper stickers are included. They didn’t cheat and give you two sheets of the same stickers either, which is nice.

Star Wars: Chopper Saves the Day is based on an unnamed episode of Star Wars Rebels by Greg Weisman. Unfortunately, in my edition of the book, the legendary comic book writer and animation writer has his name misspelled as “Greg Wiseman.” Thankfully that appears to be the only large error in the book I could identify and is an honest mistake. The book was adapted by Elizabeth Schaefer an the episodic nature of the book is very exciting.

The story is rather basic in the book. Hera and Kanan are fighting TIE-fighters aboard the starship Ghost. Hera and Kanan bicker and Chopper is stuck in the middle, often being told contradictory things from his bosses. You really get a sense of the plight of Chopper’s existence as he attempts to carry out his work in the most efficient manner while human interaction hinders his ability to take care of business.

I love the images in this book. There fairly good sized images and every page has a screencap from the episode of the television series from which the book is based. There are beautiful screen captures of TIE-fighter pilots, TIE-fighters, the heroes, and the Ghost in space. The story features turmoil with a lighthearted resolution by the end. The reading level is probably written for a 4th grader, if I had to guess. But the book contains dialog clearly featured in the television series itself which makes it pretty cool to read this early on.